To study whether behavioral and emotional problems during childhood predicted early sexual debut, risky sex at age 21 years, and sexually transmitted infections up to age 21 years. Some possible mediational pathways were also explored.
Participants were enrolled in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n = 1,037), a prospective, longitudinal study of a New Zealand birth cohort born in 1972-1973. Data obtained at ages 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 21 years were used. Adjustment was made for gender, socioeconomic status, parenting factors, and residence changes.
High levels of antisocial behavior between age 5 and 11 years were associated with increased odds of early sexual debut (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.17, 95% confidence [CI] 1.34-3.54) and risky sex (AOR 1.88, 95% CI 1.04-3.40). No relationship was observed between hyperactivity and later sexual health outcomes. In contrast, high levels of anxiety were associated with reduced odds of risky sex (AOR 0.45, 95% CI 0.25-0.80) and sexually transmitted infections (AOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.17-0.70). Involvement with delinquent peers explained some of the association between antisocial behavior and early sexual debut and risky sex. A poor relationship with parents also explained some of the association between antisocial behavior and early sexual debut.
The findings demonstrate links between behavioral and emotional problems occurring early in life and later deleterious sexual health outcomes. Targeting antisocial behavior and teaching accurate appraisals of danger during childhood may help mitigate these negative consequences.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 October 2016.
All research outputs
#4,215,112
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Outputs from Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
#1,469
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Outputs of similar age
#11,691
of 93,899 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
#9
of 25 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 27,773,453 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,892 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 93,899 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 25 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its contemporaries.
